In India which of the following city has been declared as the first “City of Literature” by UNESCO ?
Kozhikode in Kerala
Kozhikode in Kerala is India’s first UNESCO City of Literature — option 2.
The designation. Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, was admitted to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the literature category in October 2023, and the declaration was formally made in the city on 23 June 2024, which Kerala now marks as City of Literature Day.
| Point | Detail |
|---|---|
| City | Kozhikode (Calicut), Kerala |
| Category | Literature, in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network |
| Admitted | October 2023 |
| Distinction | The first Indian city in the literature category |
Why Kozhikode. The city has an unusually dense literary infrastructure — more than five hundred libraries, a long-established publishing trade, a tradition of little magazines and reading rooms, and the Kerala Literature Festival held on its beach each January. It is associated with writers including S. K. Pottekkatt, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Thikkodiyan and P. Valsala. It is also a historic port — the place where Vasco da Gama landed in 1498, and the seat of the Zamorin.
The Creative Cities Network. Established in 2004, it covers seven fields: literature, film, music, crafts and folk art, design, media arts and gastronomy. Other Indian members :
| City | Category |
|---|---|
| Varanasi, Chennai | Music |
| Gwalior | Music — admitted with Kozhikode in 2023 |
| Jaipur, Srinagar | Crafts and folk art |
| Mumbai | Film |
| Hyderabad | Gastronomy |
Hence, the answer is Kozhikode in Kerala.
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In June 2024, which city was named India’s “First UNESCO City of Literature” ?
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